808 Fitness Blog

I have to be honest, when I first saw the information about the P90X Recovery Drink I figured it was just something they’re trying to sell me.  I don’t really need it, but they’re trying to get me to buy it by saying it’s a big help blah, blah, blah.

In spite of my skepticism and doubt, we decided to give it a try anyway.  It’s true, it doesn’t taste that bad.  I was expecting worse, but while it was certainly palatable, the first few times I had it, I didn’t really think it was anything to rave about.  Actually, the first few days we drank it, I had trouble finishing up my cup.

By the following week, I could drink the whole think after a workout no problem.

Did you know that one of the most common mistakes people make when exercising is NOT consuming nutrients right after they workout?

I talked with a Certified Strength and Conditioning Coach once and he said if he could recommend only ONE change to an athlete, it would be to eat something, put some nutrients into the body directly after their workout.  In all my life of playing sports and being involved in sports I had never heard that.

Anyway - that’s another reason why it’s nice to have the Recovery Drink on hand - it’s the perfect way to get those nutrients in right after our workout.

After about 10 days of using the drink, I began looking forward to having it after our workout sessions.  We mix it up and throw it in the freezer before we start and by the time we finish, it’s a delicious, icy treat that truely hits the spot! I’ve gotten to the point where we get through with a workout and I just chug that Recovery Drink down like nothing - it tastes soooo good!  Not only that, we ran out of it and didn’t have it for about a week and both of us noticed a definite difference in muscle aches and the time it took our body to recover from workouts.  No joke - not just saying it.  I got my first cramp in all my P90X weeks during that week we were out of Recovery Drink.  We really do have a lot less muscle aches and pains and that go away faster when we do utilize the Recovery Drink so I’m definitely glad to have it on hand again!

If you’re doing P90X, get the Recovery Drink…just like Tony, “I highly recommend it.”

Now that we’ve been eating healthier for 3 full weeks, junk food hurts! Seriously, I tried eating one twinkie or having one piece of cake and bam! Almost instant tummy ache. Now it’s even easier to resist junk food knowing that I’m going to pay for it with a sore stomach within the hour. Junk food hurts!

We still don’t have the perfect diet, but we haven’t eaten fast food for weeks (not even Subway). I haven’t eaten a chocolate candy bar (and I really love chocolate). I haven’t even had my most favorite food in the world…ice cream.

I have had my fair share of non-fat frozen yogurt and strawberry-banana smoothies and protein bars though. Eating healthier is quickly becoming a habit…especially now that our stomachs react so negatively to junk food.

I’ve always known that I don’t have the best nutritional habits in the world.  I LOVE chocolate and ice cream and pizza and cookies and cake and all that “good” stuff.  Thankfully, I don’t drink much soda because when I started going out with my husband we always shared a drink and he only drank fruit punch or some other kind of juice.

The thing is, the foods I like to eat and buy and know how to cook are all I really know.  It’s what I ate growing up.  It’s what most people around me eat on a daily basis.  I just never learned how to cook healthier types of meals and most of those fancy healthy recipe magazines contain recipes that have way too many ingredients or instructions for me.  Half the time, check that, most of the time the recipes contain at least one or two ingredients I’ve never heard of before much less know where to find in a grocery store.  I don’t now about you, but I don’t have time to figure all that out!

BUT NOW…we have the Michi Tier printed on a cool, travel sized card that I can easily take with me when I go grocery shopping.  We got this from one of the workout packages from Team BeachBody.

I decided to let our food supply in the house get down to the bare minimum then went shopping with the Michi Tier/Ladder in hand.  I found this chart so very helpful because it tells you exactly what kinds of foods to buy to help you make healthier choices than you’re currently making.  They say if you stay in tiers 1 & 2 you’d have the near perfect diet.  I don’t know that we’re ready for that yet, however, I’m pretty sure we can stay in the top 3 tiers more often than not.  Even if we slip into the other tiers every now and again while we’re getting started, it’s still a lot better than how we were eating before.  I think making any improvement, no matter how small, is a great way to start and will help us become healthier.  Eventually, we can do a little more and a little more and a little more until we’ve all but eliminated the “junk” food from our daily diets.  (Yes, I used to have some kind of junk food just about every day).

So, on my first healthier grocery shopping trip, I bought about $196 worth of foods from Tiers 1-3.  We think it would be ideal to simply stock the house with just these kinds of foods so that any time the kids want a snack (or we do) we know it’s a relatively healthy choice.  It was very interesting to see my shopping cart loaded with things that I would actually have to eat within the next few weeks.  If you stick with the upper tiers, you probably won’t be buying a whole lotta stuff that would still be okay for you to eat this time next year.  I’m thinking we may need more refrigerator space and less cabinet space since most things on “the list” (which we call it in our house) do not have much of a “shelf life.”

Anyway - our first few days of eating off “the list” has been easier than I expected.  I can still have bagels with cream cheese (lowfat) which I love.  We can still eat egg sandwiches (on whole wheat bread).  The kids are happy that I’m buying more fruits and yogurt which they’ve always loved.   I don’t think they even noticed that the yogurt had “no sugar.”  And now I have a good excuse to buy skinless chicken which is how I like it.  Others in the family like the skin, but now I can simply say that it’s not on “the list.”

The cool thing is that once I made the decision to stick with and buy food off this list, it’s been pretty easy to stay away from my normal junk food (cookies from the store, chocolate shakes from fast food places, etc).  Like I said, it’s not gone completely, but I’m finding it pretty easy to “say no” way more often than I could before.  I don’t expect to go from bag habits to perfect nutrition choices overnight (I don’t think anyone should expect that - you may be setting yourself up for failure), but I’m excited about taking small steps toward a healthier way of eating for our whole family.

Wow! I never would have really thought about it today except that my husband was making comments. I seriously had a lot of junk food and honestly wouldn’t have given it a second thought. The only reason I realize just how much sweets I put into my body was because my husband said something each time he saw me eat “dessert” or a “snack.”

I had…

• a Drumstick (ice cream)
• an Ice Cake/soft serve type treat
• a Creamsicle
• and it was our daughter’s birthday, so I had a piece of birthday cake too

When he saw me eating the drumstick he was like, “I can’t believe you’re eating that AND the ice cake.” I informed him that I had bought the drumstick for him, but since he said he didn’t want it, I was more than happy to take care of it for him.

Then he saw me start on the ice cake too and said, “You’re going to eat that too? Oh, that’s enough for today, no more for you. You can’t eat cake tonight.”

I told him that I had to eat cake - it was our daughter’s birthday!

But before the party came around we had some time to relax at home. The kids all asked to have a popsicle, so I grabbed one too. Didn’t even cross my mind that I had already eaten 2 other forms of ice cream for that day and was planning on eating cake later that really did NOT need to eat a Creamsicle at that moment. But I asked the kids to pass me one without even giving it a second thought.

Yet again, the only reason I ended up thinking about what I was doing was because my husband woke up from his nap and said, “I don’t believe you’re eating that! Didn’t you have enough today already?”

Now each time he said these things, it was very light-hearted and in a fun, laughing way so it wasn’t insulting or degrading at all and it REALLY opened my eyes to just how much junk I was consuming without even realizing it or thinking twice.

So, my question to you is…

Do YOU know what you’re eating?

I guess that’s why people do food journals. It’s an eye opening experience I bet (I don’t know because I’ve never tried it-I can only imagine). But if you’re looking to try journaling in your fitness journey, there’s a free online source to keep a food journal at Fit Day (see banner below). This can help you make better food choices each day and accelerate your progress along your fitness journey. Click on the banner below to check it out.